A queer geography

By Frank Browning

Subjects: Gay men, Sexual behavior, Psychology, Identity

Description: What makes up the gay identity? What part do upbringing, family tradition, and cultural "norms" play on the development of one's sense of self? In A Queer Geography, Frank Browning looks at the effect that geography - literally being in different places in the world - has on the definition of sexuality and sexual roles. From the streets of Brooklyn to the waterfront of Naples, from a small town in Kentucky to the lusty side of Capitol Hill, Browning explores the gay psyche. Interweaving the personal stories of individual men with his own reflections on gay life in Italy, France, Brazil, and New Guinea among other places, Browning argues that today's gay rights movement could have happened only in the United States. He discovers the roots of gay identity in a distinctly American experience, discussing such sure-to-be controversial subjects as how the Puritan compact led to the backroom bawdy house, how being "born again" is reenacted as "coming out," and how gay men's search for their own identity profoundly echoes America's relentless quest for a national identity of its own.